


join the circus, it'll be fun (they said)

by postmoderne



Category: One Piece
Genre: Acrobatics, Alternate Universe - Circus, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, sanji is flexible wink wink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 15:57:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20530655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/postmoderne/pseuds/postmoderne
Summary: Circus!AU*“So… does Sanji still not want to join our circus?”, asks Luffy for what must have been the 100th time that day. Again. “I’ve seen what he can do with his legs, he would be a great addition to the Cirque Canotier, wouldn’t he, huh, Zoro?” Luffy flings his gummy body off the trapeze, down to where Zoro is leaning with his back against a bale of hay, sharpening his throwing knives. “Zoro!” Luffy stumbles around in the circus ring, acting out his usual clownery.





	join the circus, it'll be fun (they said)

“So… does Sanji still not want to join our circus?”, asks Luffy for what must have been the 100th time that day. Again. “I’ve seen what he can do with his legs, he would be a great addition to the Cirque Canotier, wouldn’t he, huh, Zoro?” Luffy flings his gummy body off the trapeze, down to where Zoro is leaning with his back against a bale of hay, sharpening his throwing knives. “Zoro!” Luffy stumbles around in the circus ring, acting out his usual clownery.   
The Zoro in question grunts. “You sure you don’t just want him to cook for you, you bottomless pit of gluttony?” He just wanted to be alone for a minute or two, which is almost impossible when you’re part of a traveling roadshow but it’s late in the evening and most of the crew are off to dreamland. Unfortunately, most is obviously not everyone. 

Luffy does not bother to answer and instead hops into a wobbly handstand. “Sanji can hold a handstand for ages and do the splits and flic-flacs! I’m sure he would like this!”, he giggles and plops down onto his ass. A dust cloud emerges from under his bottom due to the impact. “Ow. But really, the circus is in Sanji’s blood, don’t you agree? He should follow his dreams.”  
“His dreams? The circus isn’t his dream, Luffy.”, Zoro grumbles, polishing a blade. Three more to go. “I’m sure he would also like a steady income…”, which the circus surely is not. Not at the moment, anyway. They’ve got ways to go and it’s exhausting and there’s never really a day off and they have to wear funky costumes and do dangerous stunts and it’s not safe nor sound, ever. Zoro does not try to imagine the cook in a skin-tight glittery getup, stretching his legs over his head for the enjoyment and greedy eyes of their audience. Sanji isn’t like Luffy or him, Zoro is sure of that. Sanji wants to cook and wants to open a big restaurant someday, he doesn’t want to perform silly tricks every afternoon and every night just for the thrill of it. 

“Zoro, can’t you ask him again? Maybe he’s changed his mind.”, Luffy pleads.   
“Why don’t you ask him yourself, Captain?”, Zoro retorts.   
“You know he declined when I asked him…”, Luffy whines childishly, incorrigible as he is.  
“He refused my offer, as well, you dumbass! Why do you think it would work this time around?”, Zoro hisses. Every time they return to East Blue, Luffy asks and forces his crew to ask if the cook wants to join them and every single time they get rejected. Of course, because Sanji has a secure job at the Baratie, he doesn’t need them, he has a better life with Zeff. And they always get free food when they visit him and he always has a brilliant smile on his face when he sees Luffy and Nami and Robin and Usopp and… Zoro. When he sees them barging into the Baratie, dirty and loud as they are, crude and rude, everything Sanji hates because he’s polished and always in a suit and his hair is always freshly washed and golden and his eyes are blue and his legs are long and strong when he kicks their skulls in and his hands are delicate and gentle when he serves dessert to the Strawhat ladies.

“Because now he likes you, he didn’t like you before.”, Luffy’s honesty can be overwhelming at times and this time it makes Zoro go red from head to toe. He halts in his movements, the knife sharpener forgotten on the floor; he’s trying to calm down. They’ve been in the East Blue more often recently and they’ve been hanging around Sanji more often recently, as well, this much Zoro will admit. And he has been getting closer with the cook, possibly, they don’t fight as much anymore. When they had first met, they would fight every time they saw each other but that was. What now. Three years ago? Four? More? Back when the Cirque Canotier was brand-new and it was only Luffy and Zoro and Nami and Usopp and they came to the Baratie and they were hungry. Luffy was the hungriest. They had barged in with no money but empty bellies and were promptly kicked out by the blond cook. Well, except for Nami, of course, which had angered Zoro and. Sanji’s and his relationship had started on a somewhat bad note. It’s not like that anymore. They have conversations now and Sanji even allows him to drink wine that wasn’t brewed in a dirt hole now. Progress. But to say that Sanji… likes him? That goes too far, it really isn’t… it isn’t like that. They aren’t like that. Sanji is a flirt and Zoro isn’t and Zoro is brutish and Sanji is annoying anyway, with his stupid eyebrows and terrible smoking habit. Sure, he can be decent at times and when he pats Zoro’s shoulder or when he makes Zoro’s desert just a little less sweet or even when they fight and their bodies almost merge and they’re so close, so so so close-- 

“He doesn’t—he does not like me. He likes Nami. Ask her to—”

“Who likes me?”

Of course, the witch was called by her name and great, there she is with Sanji, the devil himself, at her side, looking over the circus ring, eyeing the swordsman suspiciously.   
“Nobody”, Zoro grits through his teeth and sticks his tongue out at her. She sends a death glare his way. This might cost him his weekly allowance but it’s whatever, if he’s lucky, he’ll get his booze for free from the cook and doesn’t need her dumb money.   
“Don’t talk to a lady in that manner, moss head.”, Sanji says drily and it’s as if he just confirmed Zoro in his assumption that he doesn’t like him. Not like that, anyway. Sanji worships Nami and pretty much every woman ever born. He’s a womanizer through and through. Zoro picks his knife sharpener back up and ignores them, only peeking at the cook through the corners of his eyes.

Sanji has a cloth bag in his hands. Luffy notices that as well.   
“Did you bring food?”, he asks excitedly, running towards the cook, trying to grab the bag but Sanji holds it up and out of his reach swiftly. Luffy pouts.   
“Your food is in the kitchen trailer, this is Zoro’s.”, Sanji says, “Nami, would you be so kind to go with him?” Zoro stares at him, surprised at the words. Why would he…?   
Nami nods, throwing a lifted eyebrow Zoro’s way, seizes Luffy by his neck and drags him out of the tent without uttering another word. Unusual, as she always has to say something, even if it’s unwelcome. The energy inside the big tent changes palpably. 

Sanji walks towards Zoro and sits unceremoniously down next to him. He pushes Zoro’s knives away and reaches into the bag, “Fried rice balls, chicken skewers and—“, he pulls a bottle out of the bag, “—sake.”  
“Oh. Uhm—“, Zoro says intelligently. “Uh.”  
Sanji rolls his eyes. “You’re welcome.”  
Zoro takes the bottle and box out of Sanji’s hands and. Gawks.   
“Did your brain stop functioning, algae?”, the cook laughs breathily. “I promise it’s not poisoned. It’s leftovers from today, the bustle wasn’t as terrible as it usually is. Probably because the circus is back in town. The people are too full of popcorn and candy.”  
Zoro nods and shrugs at the same time, setting down the bottle of sake and opens the bento box full of delicious goodies. It smells fantastic, as always, mouthwatering. He picks up a chicken skewer and takes a bite. “Mmm.”

“Good?”, Sanji asks.

Zoro hums. 

“Mind if I smoke?”

Zoro shakes his head. 

Sanji smokes and Zoro chews and Zoro still doesn’t. He doesn’t understand. He observes the cook and notices that Sanji has a nice profile, a solid jawline and a straight nose. Sanji’s good-looking, alright. Zoro knows this. Cigarette smoke ascends into the heaven of the red cloth of the circus tent. When has Sanji started with his smoking? Must’ve been before they had met. Zoro wonders how Sanji had been as a child.

“Cook.”

“Yeah?”

Sanji taps his cigarette and ashes drop onto the floor. He should be careful because the whole circus ring is filled with hay and straw, they can’t afford a fire. But Sanji wouldn’t be so careless.

“Do you…”

“Hm?”

Zoro can’t ask if Sanji likes him. He can’t. He’s a coward, he doesn’t dare. He looks down at his hands and at the rice balls and at the straw underneath his legs. The circus isn’t a clean environment and the cook’s suit probably is dirty already, just by sitting down next to the swordsman. He doesn’t seem to care, though.

“Do you want to join the—”

“Why should I?”

Zoro’s gaze flicks up at the cook, who is now making eye contact. Normally he would simply answer with a resounding ‘no’, so now that he hasn’t, Zoro doesn’t know what. What he should say to. That. It feels like a trick question, like a trap.

“Well. Luffy wants you to join us.”

“What about you? Do you want me to join?” Sanji leans his face into his hand and his eyes are intense and deep and blue like the sky and the sea and. Zoro breaks the eye contact, weak as he is. 

“Ah.” So, it was a trap after all. Sanji gets up, drops his cigarette and steps on it, putting it out. The cook is long lines, long legs, long arms, long neck and it works for him, he’s lanky but it isn’t awkward, anyone can see that Sanji knows how to hold himself, how to work his body.  
“Should I join because I can do this?”, Sanji asks and promptly turns a cartwheel. “Or this?” He arches his back into a stoop vault and brings his legs around, so that he’s back on his feet in a matter of seconds, then dropping into the splits. Zoro knows that this isn’t even half of what Sanji can do but it’s impressive nonetheless, Zoro himself isn’t exactly flexible, his muscles don’t really allow that but maybe he should practice his flexibility more often. Sanji pushes himself up into a handstand and he does the splits upside down and he twirls around and he walks on his hands closer to Zoro. “Why should I join you, Zoro?”

The cook plops onto Zoro’s lap and slings his arms over Zoro’s stiff shoulders.

“Sanji…”

“Remember last time, when the crew got drunk?”

Zoro blushes and nods. 

“And you promised that you would always return to the East Blue?”

They’re too close, Zoro can’t think straight.

“And that you would always ask me to join, even if I declined every time?”

Zoro gulps.

“But what if something happens? What if you can’t return one day? And I’m waiting here like an idiot for a dead man? Like some sad fucking war widow?”

Zoro opens his mouth to answer but Sanji covers it with his hand.

“Or what if you don’t return… on your own? What if you come to the Baratie one day and you’re with someone you love? What if it isn’t me?”

Zoro’s eyes widen in surprise and he grips the cook’s wrist. 

“Sometimes I have these thoughts and it’s embarrassing.”, Sanji’s voice is barely above a whisper now. “And I’ve wanted to tell you for some time… how I feel but I wasn’t sure.”

Zoro pulls Sanji’s hand away from his mouth and kisses his palm. It feels so intimate that it hurts. The food is long forgotten, all he can focus on his Sanji and he seems to engulf everything. Zoro wraps his arms around Sanji’s back and presses his face into the cook’s chest. This is the first time they’ve been this. This. They’ve hugged before but it’s never been. And it feels like all tension releases.

“If you’re… but we have to take it slow. I’ve never. Been in love with a g-guy.”, Sanji says softly into Zoro’s hair.

“Love?”

“Asshole. Shut up.”

They sit like that for what seems like ages, an entire eternity and a half, clinging to each other and Zoro isn’t ready for it to stop but he feels Sanji’s grip loosen and he pulls away. The cook’s face is flushed and his eyes are watery. Zoro kisses his jaw. 

“I’ll join.”

“What?”

“Idiot. I’ll join the Strawhats.”

“You don’t have to, you’re a cook.”

“I can cook for the crew. You don’t have someone to do that, do you?”

Zoro shakes his head, he can’t believe Sanji would say something like that but he also feels his heart burst. He would really give up his secure job, his stability… to be with Zoro?

“Sanji! Will you finally join the Cirque?”, a voice suddenly yells and it’s Luffy and he’s back in the main tent causing a clamor and in one swift movement, Sanji slides down Zoro’s lap and away and Zoro tucks his legs to his chest, burying his face into his knees out of embarrassment. Sanji coughs.

“Maybe.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! Leave a kudos or a comment if you feel like it.   
Not beta-read.
> 
> PS: "Canotier" is French and it's the kind of straw hat Luffy wears, so there's that!


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